STANDARD COMBAT SEQUENCE

1. A random ship is selected from attacking fleets, and a random ship from defending fleets.
2. An initiative is calculated for each ship, based on weapon type and sensors versus the amount of stealth on the other ship, with some random element as well.
3. The ship which wins the initiative roll gets to fire each battery in turn, using a targeting system based on the targeting order selected.
   1. standard targeting: The battery selects three random targets out of all the enemy ships, and then targets the most damaged of the three.
   2. class targeting: If the battery meets the minimum requirements for class targeting, then it will select a short-list of ships (no of ships in the list depends on amount of sensors). The chance of including ships of the targeted class in the short-list depends exclusively on sensors. Note: Ships deemed to have 0 threat will NOT be included in the target list. A further dice-roll based on sensors determines the chance of actually targeting a ship of the targeted class out of that list, otherwise a random ship in the short-list. If successful, the ship with the highest threat value is targeted. The defending ship has a final chance then of avoiding being targeted based on its defense bonuses. If successful, a random ship in the list is targeted, otherwise it is successfully engaged.
   The hit or miss is determined by the weapon type, sensors, and enemy evasion versus that weapon. Note that each battery goes through this process individually, and there is no guarantee that more than one battery on the firing ship will hit the same target. If the battery scores a hit, the damage is applied to the targeted ship, which has its sensors, stealth, speed and damage reduced in proportion to the remaining hull integrity.
4. The ship which lost the initiative roll then gets to fire its batteries.
5. The next two random ships are selected for the initiative roll, and the process continues until either the attacker or defender runs out of ships. The side which still has ships left then gets to have those ships fire one after the other till all ships have fired their batteries.

NOTES

• Because of the random elements introduced, even a very high sensor ship stands a chance of losing its initiative roll, and thus firing second.
• For class targeting to be successful, you must first have the minimum amount of sensors (25 for escorts, 50 for ships of the line, 75 for capital ships).
• Then, the more sensors you have, the more ships you will be allowed to your add to your target-list (sensors/10).
• The target list is then populated with ships, with each slot in the target list having a minimum 25% chance to select a ship of that class, plus 1% for every 5 sensors your ship has, otherwise it is a random ship.
• Ships which 0 threat level (no weapons, no sensors) are not added to the target list.
• Lastly, you have a 35% chance, plus 1 % for every 4 sensors on your ship, to target a ship of that class out of the target-list, otherwise a random ship in the list is targeted. If successful, the ship with the highest threat-level is selected.
• Note: Exactly how threat level is determined is unknown. Contributing factors include weapons and sensors, and species-unique ships have their threat-level increased by 50%.
• In all of the above, the base sensors of the ship is used, without bonuses from officer or any other source.
• Once a target has been selected, at this stage only are bonuses applied to determine your chance to hit.
• Ships which have their hull reduced to zero are NOT cleared from the battlefield until the end of the tick. Thus it is possible for a 'dead ship' to be targeted, in which case the shot is counted as hitting debris. The battery gets one more chance to target an enemy ship. If it targets debris again, it does not fire. The side-effect of this is that if there are a lot of dead ships in the target-list, there is a high chance that a lot of firepower is wasted on debris. For this reason, you may see your shot-count drop drastically in your battle-report.

EXCEPTIONS

1. If one or other side has a Kreel in the alliance, that side's ships ALL get to fire first, before any ships on the other side can return fire.
2. If both sides have a Kreel in the alliance, the Kreel with the highest stealth tech wins the initiative roll and his side gets to fire first in its entirety.
3. If the two Kreels have the same stealth tech, then the firing system used above applies.

STRATEGIES

• Ships which fire late in the sequence may have taken damage already, and thus operate at reduced efficiency when their turn comes. Thus it is better to do as much damage EARLY in the sequence as possible, to as many enemy ships as possible.
• Having a large number of high firepower ships increases your chance of doing more damage early on.
• Having ships which fire as many shots as possible means you damage more ships when that ship has a turn to fire.
• Because there is a base chance of 10% that class targeting will fail regardless of enemy sensors, and standard targeting be used, there are a few things you can do to increase your fleets survivability under standard orders, such as seeding your fleet with a large number of evasive escorts (or other flak ship), causing the 'standard targeting shots' to miss.
• Ships which have taken damage are less likely to succeed at class targeting (because of reduced sensors), and so it becomes more viable to use evasive ships or cheap flak ships to cover your main fleet as the enemy fleet takes damage.

EXAMPLES

• A fleet with 50 identical ships (assume battleships), versus a fleet with 200 identical ships (assume destroyers). After 50 ships from each side has fired, all 50 battleships have fired, unloading 100% of its damage on the second fleet. The second fleet has unloaded 25% of its damage, and it is likely that many of the ships which still have to fire are already either dead or badly damaged.
• A fleet with mixed weapons giving 8 shots per ship, versus an equal sized fleet with homogenous weapons, giving 4 shots per ship. After 10 ships from each side has fired, the first fleet has fired 80 shots, potentially damaging 80 ships. The second fleet has fired 40 shots, potentially damaging 40 ships. Side A has the advantage within the tick, because of the high likelihood that Side B has damaged ships returning fire. Side B has the advantage in the next tick, because 80 ships repairing their hull has recovered more total hull than 40 ships repairing their hull.
• The likelihood of targeting a ship of the desired class when using class targeting is actually pretty high. Consider an HBC with 80 sensors attampting to target a capital ship out of a large fleet. It will generate a target-list of 8 targets, out of which 3 are likely to be capital ships, and the rest random ships. It will have a 55% chance to select one of the capital ships, otherwise a random ship out of the list. Given that possibly 1 of the random ships might be a capital ship anyway, there is an additional 50% chance to hit a capital ship since 4/8 of the targets in the short-list are capital ships. Ultimately, it might successfully target capital ships between 55% and 80% of the time.